Archive for the ‘New Music’ Category

This year was a pretty crazy one for me, personally. I put out three albums with three different bands, and started preparing for my biggest adventure yet – moving to China with the love of my life. We are scheduled to leave on January 1st. Literally and figuratively, 2015 will be a whole new year. (more…)

One of the strangest, catchiest songs I heard all year. Sean Bonnette’s lyrics are wildly inventive, often hilarious, and they always offer up a buffet of grotesque imagery. He paints a picture of an insane little world that you can’t help but want to visit. (more…)

20. Ty Segall – Sleeper
I find it interesting that this Bay Area garage rocker received so much attention last year with his noise-rock albums Slaughterhouse, Hair and Twins, and this year when he releases the all-acoustic Sleeper, hardly a peep is made. It sure doesn’t take people long to pigeonhole you, does it? Granted, the album was aptly titled in that it was a very quiet release – there was hardly any promotion, and literally, it is Ty Segall’s softest album ever. The fact that it was released so swiftly after so many 2012 releases makes me think the songs on Sleeper represent a sort of puttering out point of Segall’s dam-burst of inspiration that resulted in last year’s slew of awesome. This makes it sort of appropriate that the songs would be acoustic, almost as if they were afterthoughts quickly laid to tape, perhaps out of frustration or perhaps in the spirit of things. Whatever the story is, it yielded some fantastic tunes – particularly the first half of the album. The title track has a haunting sing-song-y melody, and the sudden electric guitar solo on “Man Man” is mind-tearing.

Like this:

Thanks to the fact that 2012 was my busiest year ever as a musician, my routine for listening to music changed pretty drastically. As you may or may not have noticed, there were not a lot of posts this year. However, I was still listening to as much stuff as ever, though it was all in little chunks of time, rather than straight on through the year. As a result, RGH’s 2012 list is a little different from previous ones…but I think you all will appreciate it. I have divided the list into four parts to represent what I was listening to the most during the spring, summer, fall and winter. Let’s begin! (more…)

Most of the interactions I have had with people concerning That’s Why God Made the Radio (the 30th studio album from The Beach Boys and the first in 20 years to contain original material) have been carbon copies of the one I had with the guy working the record store where I purchased the album. He seemed to be surprised that a new Beach Boys record would be worth buying at all. “I just assumed it would be really bad,” he said. “I mean, that’s usually the case in situations like this, right?” Of course, he meant situations in which a band already older than your parents reunites after a 20 year absence to make new music. He’s right – very rarely does this kind of experiment produce quality material. Usually, it only serves to solidify the geezer status of the people involved, and considering people have thought of The Beach Boys as geezers for quite some time, the end result could potentially be even worse for them. (more…)

Recently, I posted this article in which I was not shy about my opinions toward modern music and its current state of affairs. I wrote it very quickly and posted it right away so I wouldn’t have time to think too much about it. I guess it is good news, then, that even as I read it now, there isn’t a whole lot I would change. Much of it consists of thoughts and feelings I have been having about the industry for years. For a while, I was worried that posting this stuff may give some people the wrong idea about me. Maybe it has – I do sound pretty bitter.

Soon after I posted this article, I saw a random Facebook post from Wake Mitchell, a musician and DJ well known to the Lawrence, KS scene. He periodically posts songs that he finds great and inspiring, along with these motivational messages of sorts. I see one almost every day, but this quote hit me just the right way right after I posted my article/rant. It seemed too perfect.

“Those who choose to work hard and strive for internal excellence inevitably experience stints of overwhelming pain and uncertainty. If you’ve ever felt such before, you’re on a beautiful path, for you are alive and conscious of all around (and within) you!”

After I read this, I felt better. I left work and began my commute back to Lawrence. It was Friday and it just felt awesome that the weekend was finally here, and whenever I feel like that, there’s nothing like some good, loud music for the drive home. I threw on a record that I’ve been listening to somewhat obsessively lately, a 9-song, 13-minute punk album called Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired by Torrance, CA’s Joyce Manor. (more…)

After years of documenting 365-day periods of music releases and listening to anything I can get my hands on, it is starting to become apparent when a good music year is on the horizon. For instance, 2011 started very mildly, and it took me a few months to find a handful of albums to which I could wholeheartedly commit. Twenty-ten wasn’t like that at all, though – right off the bat in January, there were three or four records I adored, a couple of which ended up making my top 10 for that year. As of now, 2012 is looking even more exciting than that.

Almost a month ago, the new Field Music record, Plumb, leaked to the internet, and I nearly shit myself. Not to gross anyone out, but I really love this band and can’t help but revert back to 2-month-old excitation whenever they release something. (more…)

2011 turned out to be a pretty great year for music. Though it started off a bit slow, an impressive amount of new talent as well as seasoned songwriting vets emerged with stellar releases this year. In some cases, bands and artists returned with their strongest material in years. In others, emerging artists have given us some amazing things to look forward to for the future. And in others still, bands who have been kicking ass for a few years now are, well, still kicking ass. Here are Record Geek Heaven’s Top 20 Albums of 2011: (more…)

The breakup of Oasis led to two of 2011’s most hotly anticipated albums – the debut of vocalist Liam Gallagher’s new band Beady Eye, and the first solo outing from his brother, Noel. However, each record was met with different sorts of anticipation. When the Beady Eye release was announced, the eagerness of fans to hear it was more of a manifestation of nervousness for Liam: Could he really make a good album without Noel? Would the remaining ex-Oasis members be enough to fill in the cracks? And for the most part – perhaps because people set their expectations pretty low – it seemed to please fans to a certain extent. But the hubbub surrounding Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds was altogether different, the sort that makes artists nervous. (more…)

Firstly, this is not a Jayhawks reunion album. Sure, it’s been eight years since their last one (Rainy Day Music), but so many bands have gone even longer between albums without formally breaking up that it seems counterproductive to call this a reunion. Secondly, this isn’t even a reunion album for original Jayhawks songsmiths Mark Olson and Gary Louris, since they released an acoustic album together last year. So then, what is Mockingbird Time? (more…)